McLaws is right on Windows Vista ship date — I'm sad to agree with Robert McLaws about Windows Vista's ship schedule. This sucker is just not ready. Too many things are too slow and/or don't work. I've been on the betas of every Windows OS since Windows 3.1 and Vista is starting to feel good …

eMusic - My Only Online Music Store — As I struggle to figure out how to properly de-authorize my old thinkpad and auhtorize my new MacBook Pro (argh), I came across an article in USA Today about the only online music store I have used in the past year, eMusic.

Apple gets reprieve from French DRM-busting law — France's controversial copyright law, which had threatened to mandate interoperability between Apple Computer and rival online music players' digital rights management, has been dealt a major setback as sections of the legislation are being ruled unconstitutional.

Cingular to charge $5 for older phones — NEW YORK - About 4.7 million Cingular Wireless subscribers with older phones will have to pay $5 extra each month as the company tries to prod them to get new handsets so it can devote its entire network to one type of signal.

AMATEUR HOUR — On the Internet, everybody is a millenarian. Internet journalism, according to those who produce manifestos on its behalf, represents a world-historical development—not so much because of the expressive power of the new medium as because of its accessibility to producers and consumers.

Open Source Licenses are Obsolete — Last week at OSCON, I made the seemingly controversial statement "Open Source Licenses Are Obsolete. During the Q&A period, Michael Tiemann of Red Hat and the Open Source Initiative took issue with my statement, pointing out just how much value open source licenses have created.

YouTube overtakes MySpace — The rise and rise of YouTube — MediaGuardian.co.uk — YouTube has established itself at the top of the league of the new generation of community websites by becoming even more popular than MySpace, according to research. — The video sharing site has taken …

Post-BlogHer thoughts — These are some random notes on the day after BlogHer. They're in no special order, and conclusions are scattered all through the narrative, organized thoughts will come later, maybe much later. — BlogHer this weekend created a lifetime of memories.

Cafeterias: Big Mother Is Watching — Darin Jones, 15, liked to buy three slices of pizza, a Gatorade and a cookie for lunch at his Vero Beach, Fla., high school. But that stopped once his school started using MealpayPlus.com, which allowed his mom to prepay for his food-and go online to track his purchases.

Outside of Search, Google Doesn't Matter — Andrew Schmitt submits: There was an interesting column in the New York Times last week, outlining the different design approaches taken by Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO). It also provided quantitative values that reinforced a suspicion of mine.

One of these six companies will buy YouTube — All the buzz around video site YouTube indicates that the closely-held company could have a market value of around $1 billion. — Given those numbers, it is only natural to crystal-ball YouTube's future: private, IPO, acquired, acquirer?

IBM researchers predicted PC disruption — It is the 25 year anniversary of the PC and I have long wondered if the industry standard technologies that resulted from the PC revolution were accidental because the computer industry always favored proprietary technologies.

AOL to Launch New Video Portal — AOL, a leader in live and on-demand entertainment video programming and video search, today announced that it will preview a beta version of its new AOL Video portal later this week. Available for free to anyone on the Web at http://www.aolvideo.com …

Illegal downloads create unlikely defendants — Music industry seeks to protect copyrights — Kathy Hartness is a 47-year-old grandmother, churchgoer and gardener who had never been in trouble with the law — until she was served with papers in June for something she did more than a year ago.

Billy Bragg's MySpace Protest Movement — When he is not writing or performing protest songs, the British folk-rocker Billy Bragg is apparently reading the fine print. — In May, Mr. Bragg removed his songs from the MySpace.com Web site, complaining that the terms and conditions …